Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Sep 07, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Sep 07, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Coal Uncertainty over coal capacity in Tenth Plan Badal Sanyal
Kolkata , Sept. 6 UNCERTAINTY over the creation of additional coal production capacity during the Tenth Plan has surfaced following tardy progress in implementation of new projects by the State-owned coal companies and also by the private sector. Coal India Ltd (CIL), through its production subsidiaries, has targeted the creation of additional capacity of about 80 million tones (m.t.) by 2006-07, entailing an investment of about Rs 14,493 crore. CIL is yet to begin developing a new mine. This suggests that CIL's greenfield coal projects are unlikely to be ready within the current five year plan. A senior CIL executive has said that it appears to be a difficult job to achieve the targeted production by the end of Tenth Plan unless procedural formalities towards acquisition of land and clearance from the ministry of environment and forests are simplified. He suggested that all formalities should have to be cleared from a `single window', failing which none of the major projects is likely to be completed within the next three and a half years. He was worried about the way a section of `fly-by-night' private operators without having any mining experience were being allowed to enter into coal mining as joint venture partners of the State Governments. This trend should be reversed, he felt. "Let the large corporate houses enter into coal mining business as joint venture partners of the State Government," he suggested. He said that of the CIL's total investment during the Tenth Plan, about Rs 741 crore would be utilised by Eastern Coalfields Ltd, about Rs 232 crore by Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, about Rs 2,343 crore by Central Coalfields Ltd, about Rs 3,917 crore by Northern Coalfields Ltd, about Rs 813 crore by Western Coalfields Ltd, and about Rs 3,352 crore by Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. Meanwhile, an almost defunct Indian Mining Federation is reviving its position in view of coal mining activities once again being delegated to the private sector entrepreneurs. The federation has decided to play its part as it did during pre-nationalisation period of the domestic coal industry. This industry was nationalised in phases in 1972-73 and 1974.
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